juanes!

…from the San Francisco Chronicle:

A voice, charisma, compassion -
Juanes delivers it all with love
by Chuy Varela, Special to The Chronicle

Colombian rocker Juanes added a few degrees to a sweltering day as he brought his love fiesta to San Jose's cavernous HP Pavilion on Friday night. Performing more than two hours' worth of his greatest hits and songs from his latest album, "La Vida ... Es Un Ratico" ("Life is but a moment"), he left the near-capacity audience charmed and enlightened.

Athletic, energetic and in tremendously good voice, the show was the last leg of a world tour that concluded during the weekend with his participation in the Latin America in Solidarity Action benefit concert for children in Mexico City alongside Shakira, Maná, Paulina Rubio and many others.

The charisma Juan Esteban Aristizábal (his real name) commands is genuine and his humble guy-next-door image compares to Bruce Springsteen's in its realism. His dress (striped shirt and gray pants) is unpretentious, but it's the depth of his lyrics and the themes he touches that soulfully deliver messages that empower his fans.

"A Dios le Pido" ("I Ask God"), the big 2002 hit from his "Un Día Normal" album, opened the show and brought the crowd to its feet, hooting and hollering as he hit the stage. A metallic flower of lights served as a backdrop and created colorful kaleidoscopic sequences throughout the evening that enhanced the mood and excitement of the pieces.

From jump, the largely Latino audience was on its feet singing along and dancing. The crowd quickly grasped the verses of "No Creo en el Jamás" ("I Do Not Believe in Never"), from the new album, and gyrated in a collective groove, singing verses about the importance of picking yourself up if you get knocked down.

The magic of Juanes, who is gracious to his fans and constantly thanks them, rests on songs that express sentiments that relate to everyday life struggles and range from relationship woes to situations in his fans' native countries. He never gets preachy, though, about the political aspects of his music and says he is just trying to create, "una fiesta en la casa del amor" ("a party in a house of love").

His hard-driving, six-piece combo laid down a musical foundation that was like clockwork, with very little deviation from the original recordings. Juanes is a pretty good guitarist and picked some potent solos on his sunburst Fender Stratocaster that got him a few jolts of applause throughout the night.

He slowed things down with "Te Busqué" ("I Searched for You") and took off his guitar to pace the stage and its runway extension. He slapped hands, crooned and stopped for the cell phone paparazzi to snap his picture. From there, he rolled through familiar songs that kept the party moving.

The political insinuations of some of his music are idealistic but meaningful. "Bandera de Manos" ("A Flag of Hands") was dedicated to farmworkers, indigenous peoples and immigrants. "We are tired of stories of defeat and broken promises, let us uplift our soul and voice," said the song in Spanish.

The most moving piece of the night was "Minas Piedras" ("Land mines"), an intimate piece with piano, guitar and voice. It was coupled with a slide show that transmitted images of land mine victims from around the world. The faces of amputees, from children to the elderly, left you with sadness and awareness about a problem that has plagued his Colombian homeland, which is embroiled in a lingering civil war.

He concluded the performance with his megahit, "La Camisa Negra," that had the room in a whirlwind as the house went black. Shouts of "otra" (another song) engulfed the arena and lasted more than five minutes before he and the band returned to the stage for 20 more minutes of music that ended, surprisingly, with an old-school salsa tune by Joe Arroyo titled, "Rebelion."

Given his many good deeds, from trying to broker peace deals between warring factions in Colombia, to the ALAS concerts in Mexico, Juanes proved Friday night he is mega-global star with conscience. One of the most influential Latin American artists today, Juanes is a high priest of Latin rock who blesses his audiences with hope and the inspiration to dream for a better world.